Traditional cable networks initially provided one-way broadcasting of televisions programs to subscribers. This was sufficient in the early days of television. Eventually, however, because the Internet has become so popular, subscribers now desire the ability to transmit as well as receive data over their network connections.
To accommodate subscribers' needs, conventional cable networks have been modified to enable subscribers to transmit more and more data in a reverse or upstream direction to a network. For example, via a device such as a cable modem, in addition to receiving data such content for playback, a subscriber is now able to transmit data over coaxial cable to remote locations over a network.
Modification of traditional cable systems to provide bi-directional data transmission capability has not been without problems. For example, a coaxial cable is one type of medium that used to today to convey signals to and from a respective subscriber's home. Typically, coaxial cable networks have a limited, usable bandwidth of about 1 GHz. Certain conventional cable systems allocate use of the 5-40 MHz band for upstream or inbound communications from a subscriber's home to the network. A balance of more than 900 MHz at an upper end of the frequency spectrum has been allocated for use in the downstream direction to transmit data to subscribers.
The allocation of limited bandwidth (e.g., 5-40 MHz to transmit data in the upstream direction) is becoming more undesirable because the amount of upstream traffic has increased substantially over the past years.
As a possible solution to addressing the increased demand to transmit in the upstream direction, it has been proposed to split the spectrum into multiple bands in which both a band at the lowest end of the available range and a band at the highest end of the available range are used to transmit data in the upstream direction. A middle band between the two higher and lower bands can be configured to provide downstream transmission of data.
Allocation of bandwidth in the upstream and downstream direction impacts the design of repeater devices that are used to amplify the signal along the cable. For example, it is not uncommon that a communication link is more than several hundred yards or even miles long. The cable may provide access to many customers. Hence, there may be substantial attenuation of signals due to long cable lengths and so-called splitting losses.
To account for losses in the cable and splitting devices, cable networks typically include so-called repeaters to provide signal amplification when needed. In general, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits the signal at a higher level and/or higher power so that the signal can be transmitted longer distances over a respective communication link.